What were the major external threats to the Ottoman Empire, 1878-1900, Essay

What were the major external threats to the Ottoman Empire, 1878-1900, and how were they contained - Essay Example This discussion therefore seeks to dissect these external challenges and how the empire responded to them. Reid explains that in the period between 1878 and 1900, the Ottoman Empire was still grappling with the negative aftereffects of its previous involvement with war against her external enemies, Poland, Persia, Russia and Austria in the period between 1768 and 1774. Moreover, the terms of the treaty that ended this war did not auger well with the Ottoman Empire’s interests. Particularly, the Kuchuk-Kaynarja Treaty which was intended to end the Russo-Ottoman war of 1768-1774: granted independence to the Trans-Danubian provinces; forced the Ottoman Empire to abandon the Tartar Khanate which was in the Crimea; compelled the empire to pay large war remunerations; and gave Russian ships permission to access the Ottoman water bodies. The 1870s therefore found the empire grappling with these setbacks and carried them onwards1. Additionally, the empire was still reeling from the effects of the Greek War of Independence which had taken place between 1821 and 1832. At the Battle of Navarino, the Anglo-French destroyed the Egyptian and Ottoman fleets, as the Russian troops captured swathes of the empire’s territories upto to Erdine. It is against the backdrop of the development that the Ottoman power attracted greater extents of vulnerability. This vulnerability was in turn underscored by the glaring attractiveness of the empire’s vast holdings to other players in international relations and thereby complicating the status and fate of the Eastern Question. As these problems persisted, Tsar Nicholas I of Prussia referred to the empire as the Sick man of Europe. From this point, the Concert of Europe was mainly concerned about how the Ottoman Empire could be disposed off in a manner that would not gain any power, at the expense of other powers, so as not to disturb the balance of political power i n European politics